Badminton

Malaysia Open 2022: PV Sindhu, HS Prannoy Lead India's Challenge

PV Sindhu will try to recover quickly from his first round in Indonesia, while HS Prannoy will see another consistent performance as the duo faces the Indian challenge at the Malaysia Open Super 750, which begins on Tuesday in Kuala Lumpur. Sindhu, a two-time Olympic medalist, was spotted at the door of China's He Bing Jiao earlier this month in the opening round of the Indonesia Open Super 1000 and will have to throw that loss behind him when he launches his campaign against the amazing Pornpawee Chochuwong in Thailand.

While Sindhu rejoiced 5: 3 against Chochuwong, the Indian lost three times to the Thai world 10 in the last five meetings, which made her encounter an exciting prospect. .

If he manages to overcome the opening barrier and run a solid run, Sindhu could face Olympic champion Chen Yu Fei from China.

Bronze medalist from the London Olympics Saina Nehwal, who started against the USA Iris Wang, will also play in the same half of the lottery. The sixth Japanese seed Nozomi Okuhara, a former world champion, will win against him.

Saina crossed the Indonesian leg to handle the work pressure and sought a good performance against Wang, who lost in three games when they met only at the Orleans Masters last year.

In the men's singles, Prannoy has made it steadily to the gradual quarterfinals since last year's World Cup. He played a key role in the epic victory of the Thomas Cup of India and then showed some great performances in Jakarta to make it to the semifinals.

The 29-year-old was outraged after a series of unforeseen mistakes led to his deportation from Indonesia. Desperate to end his five-year title drought, Prannoy will face Malaysian veteran Daren Liew, who beat him at the Thailand Open in May this year.

Tokyo Olympian B Sai Praneeth will fight, among other things, the sixth-seeded Indonesian, Anthony Sinisuk Ginting, while Sameer Verma will fight another Indonesian, Jonathan Christie, who is in seventh place.

Former Gold Medalist of the Commonwealth Games Parupalli Kashyap, who is also recovering from a hamstring injury, will face Korean Heo Kwang Hee in the opening round.

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chiraga Shetty, the world's eighth pair, will also return to action after skipping the last two actions due to fitness problems. The duo will open their Man Wei Chong and Kai Wun Tea in Malaysia. In the mixed doubles, Ashwini Ponnappa and B Sumeeth Reddy, who are part of the Commonwealth Games team in India, will face Robin Tabeling and Selena Piek from the Netherlands.

Venkat Gaurav Prasad and Juhi Dewangan will fight Kim Won Ho and Jeong Na Eun from Korea.